Kent Bush: Flattery is currency in morally bankrupt culture

Wednesday

May 30, 2018 at 11:58 AMMay 30, 2018 at 11:58 AM

We are living in a weird period of history. I’m sure my grandkids will have a lot of questions about how we got here and what it was like.

America elects a reality star to be president. Donald Trump is so emotionally unstable that he praises himself when no one else will. If someone else praises him, they immediately have the favor returned. That is true for despots in North Korea or sitcom stars.

Everyone gets to ride the crazy train.

So when Roseanne Barr rebooted her 1990s sitcom with a storyline revolving around Trump supporters in the Midwest, she naturally found a friend in Donald Trump.

The president even called her to congratulate her on her success — which he really considered his success. That’s when the Trump effect swallowed the show. I have said it many times, Hillary Clinton was wrong to say all Trump supporters are “deplorables” but she was on the right track. All Trump supporters aren’t deplorable, but I’m convinced that all deplorables are Trump supporters.

Some Trump supporters just hated Clinton more or they are so partisan that they are fans of anyone who claims to be a Republican. That is misguided but not deplorable.

However, if you come in contact with a sexist, racist, homophobe or xenophobe that person will almost always be a fan of Trump’s. His policies and style are safe spaces for those who a better society would never welcome.

Just days after getting the presidential seal of approval, Barr found a way to get her show canceled.

I guess she didn’t have a fun Memorial Day weekend, because Barr jumped on Twitter and started ham-handedly spouting racist and disproven conspiratorial tweets for seemingly no reason.

She later apologized. After the apology, she began attacking cast and crew members who distanced themselves from her racist comments. After that, she claimed she was on Ambien and that’s why she tweeted anti-Semitic and racist things.

The makers of Ambien were quick to respond that no drug that they make has ever listed “telling racist jokes” as a side effect.

ABC had no choice but to cancel the show. The network couldn’t be seen as supporting or endorsing those views. The worst thing about these frequent issues is that Trump supporters, in an effort to show that support for their president, will double down on the racism or other inappropriate comments.

Presidential bootlicker Bill Mitchell actually took Barr’s words where she called Valerie Jarrett the offspring of the Muslim Brotherhood and Planet of the Apes and put images with it. He tweeted a photo of Jarrett and a Planet of the Apes cast member he thought looked like Jarrett and said, “ZERO resemblance.”

FOX News hosts came to Barr’s defense as well claiming she had the right to free speech. This is where so many of the questions start. The same hosts who point out that Colin Kaepernick and NFL players who agree with him, have no right to a First Amendment protected protest because the NFL is their employer and not the government, suddenly miss that same logic when it come to Barr tweeting racist comments.

Pick a lane, people.

You can’t be taken seriously when you argue both sides just days apart simply because amongst Roseanne’s racist tirades, she sprinkles in some flattery for the president.

But to continue this discussion, conservatives hate Kaepernick and support his being blackballed from the NFL because he protests against police brutality by kneeling during the National Anthem. They even celebrate rule changes that make those protests illegal.

However, thanks to her support of Trump, conservatives rally to support Barr even though she made a mockery of the National Anthem when she was given a chance to sing it and then grabbed her crotch and spit on the ground. That wasn’t disrespectful to the flag and the men and women of the armed services but kneeling is?

The logic there escapes me.

I wonder what the difference is between Roseanne Barr and Colin Kaepernick that make people like a racist sitcom star more than a quarterback protesting for racial justice. Maybe it isn’t a black and white issue. Maybe the moon is made of cheese.

Racism shouldn’t be a part of any political platform. Democrats shouldn’t be racist. Republicans shouldn’t be racist. Libertarians shouldn’t be racist.

I guess if you are openly a supporter of Nazi’s, you can be racist. At least then you aren’t making good people from another party look bad.

We are 75 years removed from the Holocaust and 50 years have passed since the Civil Rights movement. The time has come for people of every political party to tell people with views like those espoused by Roseanne Barr — and retweeted by the president’s son — they are wrong and their opinions aren’t welcome.

You don’t have to endorse someone’s vile views simply because they voted for the same guy you did in 2016.

— Kent Bush is publisher of Shawnee (Oklahoma) News-Star and can be reached at kent.bush@news-star.com.

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.

Network

Original content available for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons license, except where noted.
More Content Now ~ 9001 IH-35 North, Suite 102, Austin, TX 78753 ~ Privacy Policy ~ Terms Of Service